Food influences body clock and may ease jet lag

FEELING jet-lagged? Head for the fridge. Research in mice has shown that insulin released after a meal can restore a disrupted body clock.

Insulin is a hormone that helps control blood sugar levels. Miho Sato and her colleagues at Yamaguchi University in Japan wanted to know if insulin affects the circadian rhythms that influence alertness, sleep patterns and other functions.

The central body clock is reset daily by light in a part of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus. But circadian rhythms are also present in peripheral "clocks" in many cell types. Food intake can influence these clocks but exactly how was unclear.

To find out, Sato's team started by shifting the peripheral body clock in livers of mice by feeding them only at night for a week. They then suppressed insulin levels in half of the mice and returned them all to daytime feeding. Four days later, only the livers of the mice with normal insulin levels had readjusted (Cell Reports, doi.org/tpf).

If human body clocks are similar, Sato suggests jet-lagged people could adjust their eating patterns to get back on schedule.

This article appeared in print under the headline "Eat at weird times to beat jet lag"

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